The Marks of Jesus – Part 2

Leviticus not only explains the reason for Jesus’ double approach in John 20:19-31, it also answers the question of whether the marks of the Roman whips, crown of thorns, nails, and spear still mar His glorified body.

Part 1 is here.

The purpose of all marks, signs, and symbols in covenant history is testimony. The Hebrew word used for the mark upon Cain denotes a sign, a pledge, or a token. It served the same purpose as money, that is, legal tender whose value rested upon the word of the one who guaranteed it. Cain’s mark was a memorial to a legal covenant, a promise (Oath) with a warning (Sanctions). While the word spoken by God could no longer be heard, its “image” remained upon Cain. The “testimony” of Abel’s blood was countered by this “testimony” upon Cain’s own flesh. Through this act of mercy on God’s part, Cain became a living epistle, a word “incarnate.”

The Mark of Cain

In Genesis 4:15, the placement of the mark at Trumpets denotes that this was not merely a legal testimony but also a symbolic resurrection. There would be vengeance upon vigilantes on earth (the Bronze Altar) because there was a “rainbow” in heaven (the Incense Altar). The next mark in covenant history would be the rainbow after the flood, the sign of a world resurrected from the abyss. The flood would revoke the old priesthood and its Sanctuary and a new global mark would revoke this personal one. Moreover, the sword of vengeance would now reside in the hand of the first man to qualify as God’s legal representative: Noah, the world’s first priest-king (Genesis 9:6). His submission to heaven (Oath) brought him dominion upon the earth (Sanctions).

Every Covenant Oath and the execution of its Sanctions together function as historical bookends to every historical era. The value of the “currency” placed upon Cain depended not only on the Word of God from heaven but also upon the continued ministry of blood sacrifice on earth. The office that was established in Abel was a substitutionary offering for the firstborn of the womb on behalf of all the future sons of Adam. In the same way, the “offering” of Isaac on Moriah as a firstfruits later opened the way for a nation of Abrahamic sons. Rather than submit to the significance of this bloody rite — watching his own death in type — Cain slew the one who imaged the God who had served Adam as a priest in Genesis 3, and he most likely did this with his brother’s own sacrificial knife. Cain’s perversion of the Day of Coverings left him uncovered — legally naked and exposed — before God. The application of the mark reminded all men that Cain was inescapably the firstborn, the first king. To uncover Cain was to tear the veil of the Lord. To murder a king sets a dangerous precedent of power-by-assassination. To kill Cain was to seize the throne of the Lord. As with King Saul, Cain’s throne was an extension of God’s throne. Vengeance against Cain was thus in the hands of God.

Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.” So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. (1 Samuel 24:4-7)

The act of substitution holds vengeance at bay. If substitution is rejected, vengeance rushes in like a flood.¹See Altar of the Abyss – Part 2. History only continued because the priesthood continued. The separation of Cain and his line from the Sethites was akin to that of the Circumcision in later history: the Sethites mediated before God for all men including the Cainites. When the ministry of blood atonement by the Sethite priesthood was corrupted and abandoned through intermarriage with the kingly line of Cain, there was no more sacrifice for sins (Hebrews 10:26). The blood of Abel and all those slain since would be avenged upon that generation. With the covering “sign” removed, that blood would be upon their own heads.

The pattern of the history from Adam to Noah is recapitulated in microcosm in the events from the birth of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem.²See Why Was Enoch Taken? This explains not only Jesus’ reference to Lamech’s inversion of God’s promise to Cain (Genesis 4:24; Matthew 18:22), but also His references to the avenging of the blood of all the prophets upon the final generation of Israelite priests who continued to offer animal substitutes as a sign of their rejection of Christ (Garden: Matthew 23:35), and to the godless intermarriages before the flood as an image of the compromise of the Jewish rulers (Land: Matthew 24:38).

When the priesthood failed, the mark upon Cain, the firstborn of Adam — and by extension upon his entire civilisation — lost its value. Idolatry is evil because it places value upon something that is actually worthless. It is the act of counterfeiting, a form of theft. In his book Simulacra and Simulation, postmodern thinker Jean Baudrillard describes what he calls the “precession of simulacra,” the degeneration of the image through successive stages of corruption: the reflection of a profound reality, the masking and denaturing of a profound reality, the masking of the absence of a profound reality, and finally, the point where the symbol bears no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum.³For a full discussion of how this pattern relates to the Bible Matrix and the idolatry inherent in godless worldviews, see “A Twofold Shadow” in Dark Sayings: Essays for the Eyes of the Heart. Instead of realising that the mark of mercy upon Cain was a sign linked to the Sethite priesthood, it presumably became a “thing in itself,” an imaginary god as a refuge for evil. This was the sin of those in the first century who believed that their Abrahamic heritage protected them from judgment. Instead, it became a snare.

The stanza that describes the placement of the priestly mark upon Cain is a liturgy that begins with a word and ends with an image. The same process occurs in Ezekiel 9: the man in priestly linen is commanded to mark the citizens whose hearts had been circumcised by the words of the prophets. The development from head (Word) to body (image) in the liturgy is an expression of the primacy of heaven over earth, priesthood before kingdom, humility before exaltation, and cultus before culture. The ascension offering in Leviticus 1 recapitulates this order, with the clean parts (head, heart, and lungs) offered first by fire, and the unclean parts washed and offered second.⁴See James B. Jordan, Re-creation in the Ascension Offering. This is related to the two approaches of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement but it is also seen in the pattern of the ministry of Christ (as Head) and the Church (as Body) in the first century. This rite is what the reader is being led through in the liturgy of the book of Revelation. The Lamb is discovered as the ascended Head and He sends His Spirit to gather the Body. The reason that Jesus waited until after His resurrection to commission Peter to feed His sheep (John 21:15-19) is their imminent slaughter as blameless legal witnesses against the walled city of Jerusalem, the Cainite fortress and self-styled “city of refuge” of the murderous Herods.

The Mark of the Beast

The fact that Genesis 4:15 follows the matrix pattern means that by structural correspondence it sheds light upon the purpose of the marks on Jesus’ body as a necessary step in the head-and-body sacrificial process of the ministry of Christ and the Church in the first century. The personal death-and-resurrection of Jesus was played out corporately by the nation of Israel, just like it was in the wilderness. The 40 days of His personal testimony before His ascension as Sacrificial Head was the foundation of the 40 years of the testimony of the Apostolic Church as Sacrificial Body before the vindication of the martyrs against their murderers.⁵It seems that Jesus’ sojourn in Egypt as a child was 40 days, associated with His circumcision, just as the 40 days of testing in the wilderness was related to His baptism. In the first century pattern, the death of Christ and the tearing of the Veil correspond chiastically with the murder of the last martyrs in Jerusalem and the destruction of the entire Temple. The first was a sign — a guarantee — of the latter.

The corresponding sign upon the Body was the seal of the Spirit upon those who believed the Gospel and would soon die for it, a guarantee of the inheritance that awaited them (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Revelation 7:2-4). Baptism is thus a sign of the resurrection of the body, and as a “Body” event, such a harvest is always corporate. Even the resurrection of Jesus was accompanied by the shaking of the land and the opening of the graves of many saints as a legal testimony to the Jews.

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the [land] shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:51-54)

As an Oath from heaven, these personal signs would be fulfilled in the Sanctions poured out upon the apostate Temple and City of spiritual Babylon. That is why Paul could say with confidence that the Temple and its false priest-king would be destroyed (2 Thessalonians 2:2-12), and the author of Hebrews (quoting Haggai 2:6) states that the entire Land would be shaken to its foundations once more (Hebrews 12:26). Jerusalem would be condemned and mocked by the ascended Christ, the true High Priest, then handed over to Gentiles, surrounded, beaten, scourged, stripped naked, crucified (up to 500 in a single day) and finally poured out as blood and water, an offering for the Jews and the Gentiles, the Land and the Sea.

But before this, that Christ might be justified in His words (Oath) and blameless in His judgment (Sanctions), the testimony of the Apostles “filled up” the sufferings of Christ in Jerusalem and across the empire so that there was no excuse.

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” (Romans 3:1-4)

Just as the scars of Jesus served as evidence in His legal testimony on the earth as Covenant Head, so also the marks of Jesus — the wounds suffered by Paul and the other witnesses — proved that they were indeed the Body of Christ. Words were not enough. It was necessary that the Words be memorialised in the marks of the perils, hardships, imprisonments, and scourgings of those who bore the testimony. The heavenly seals upon these “living epistles” would be broken in their deaths on earth. That was the delivery of the message.

What was the response of those Jews who did not believe? They took refuge in their circumcision as a means of avoiding persecution. They sought to avoid testifying for Christ by hiding behind the very mark that predicted His incarnation. They resorted to keeping the laws graven with the finger of God in order to escape identification with the one into whose marks Thomas had desired to place his finger. And as with Cain, they not only rejected the substitute offered on their behalf, but hardened their hearts and slew the brothers who now served them as priests in the image of THE VERY GOD who had died for them.

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. (Galatians 6:12-18)

In His ascension to heaven in the glory cloud — a pillar of fire — the marks upon the sacrificial body were consumed. Although Jesus is described as the fulfillment of the Firstfruits Lamb in Revelation 5, no scars are mentioned in the description of the glorified Jesus in Revelation 1. His testimony in heaven as our Advocate was accepted and completed. The only blood within the Tabernacle was a memorial of that which had been shed outside the house. The body that appeared and testified to the 500 on earth was related to the Bronze Altar, the place where all the martyrs still resided in the spiritual realm, their blood splashed against it like that of the first brother, Abel (Leviticus 1:5; Revelation 6:9). Once ascended, Jesus’ body was related to the furnishings in the Holy Place, centred upon the Altar of Incense. That is the image we are given in Revelation 1. Instead of the priestly sash of blue, purple, and scarlet (the three stages of bloodletting from the sacrifice), the golden sash of Jesus is that of the glorified priest-king, one who not only guards the Garden but also the Land. Thus, the action in the Revelation moves from the Covenant Head in heaven to judgment upon the false kings on the earth.

In the sending of His Spirit, the marks upon His human body registered upon the Bride of Christ: Word then image. This began at the stoning of Stephen as a blasphemer under the Law of Moses at the hand of Paul. The sending of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of the holy fire that had fallen upon the sacrifices of God over the centuries. This is why Peter (in Acts 2:17-21) and John (in Revelation 8:5) describe this pouring out in sacrificial terms as a transformation from flesh to smoke by fire.

The response of the Judaizers to the faithful testimony of the Apostles was entrenched in their exclusion them from Temple worship. The stigmata, the “holy scars” branded into the flesh of the Apostolic Church as a sign of their bondage to Christ, were counterfeited in the head-and-body “brand” of the beast, the sign of an external holiness in the forehead (priesthood) and the right hand (kingdom). The holy forehead and the sword-bearing right hand are an inverted conflation of the commands in Ezekiel 9:4-5.

They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. (John 16:2)

The mark of the beast served as a “spiritual currency” over which these self-styled gatekeepers, as money-changers, maintained control over the office that they had usurped from Christ. Leviticus 14:33-53 prescribes a double cleansing of a house corrupted by plague, an equivalent to the scaled, dusty, serpentine skin that rendered the leper unclean. Jesus had turned over the tables once as a sign to the Jews. He would return to inspect the house once again and tear it down completely. Not one stone would be left upon another (Matthew 24:2).⁶For more discussion, see The Leprous House.

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side. I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.” (Zechariah 5:3-4)

Signs on the Land

All of the elements of sacred architecture through the centuries were images of the promises of God, oaths in the Garden that would be measured out in the Land and ultimately in the World. But those elements also found their initial fulfillments in the Christ.

The linen of the priesthood was revealed to be an image of burial cloth, the impurity of sin cleansed through the purifying power of death, the leper finally clean when rendered entirely white (Leviticus 13:13). His scaled skin was a serpentine covering ready to be shed, much like the scales that fell from the blind eyes of Saul.

The two cherubim upon the kapporet of the Ark of the Testimony were revealed to be the angels that flanked the resting place of the body of Christ in the tomb. Instead of slaying the “Adam” who approached the Sanctuary they were now witnesses to His resurrection.

The three elements contained within the Ark  — the tablets of the Law, the pot of manna, and the rod of Aaron that blossomed — were fulfilled in the body of Christ Himself. His flesh was engraved with the characters of death, the marks that inscribed the Law upon a tablet of flesh (Word). He was taken down as bread from heaven and hidden in the earth as a testimony that true kingdom was to be discovered in humility before God (Sacrament). And it seems that in His burial and embalming with fragrant spices as a symbol of Springtime resurrection that the crown of thorns was removed and replaced with a crown or wreath of flowers, denoting not only victory and honour in death but also a shift from the Bronze Altar outside the tent to the Incense Altar in the court of God (Government). As my friend Jared Leonard has remarked, the manna was white, the blossoms were white, and it is reasonable to believe that the Ten Words were carved into white stone. All three are physical images of not only purity but also light. The Ark of the Testimony corresponds to Day 1 in the Creation sequence in the Bible Matrix. The death of Christ was a new covenant and the resurrection of Jesus was a new testimony. If any Adam is in Christ he is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Related to these three symbols in the Ark, flesh, blood, and pollen are three elements of the image on the famous Shroud of Turin. The Shroud is a relic whose authenticity is questioned and even dismissed by many Christians, including Christian author N. D. Wilson who structured an experiment to test his theory that a photonegative image could be created on linen by passing sunlight through an image painted on glass.⁷For more information, visit shadowshroud.com. A degree of skepticism concerning such claims is healthy, however the evidence presented by the Shroud and the lesser known Sudarium of Oviedo is not the sort of information that medievals would think of simulating.

An analysis of pollen grains and plant images places the origin of the “Shroud of Turin,” thought by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth, in Jerusalem before the 8th Century. The authenticity of the Shroud has been debated for centuries, with a 1988 carbon dating process placing it in the Middle Ages.

Botanist Avinoam Danin of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem determined the origin of the Shroud based on a comprehensive analysis of pollen taken from the Shroud and plant images associated with the Shroud…

Danin’s analysis suggests that flowers and other plant materials were placed on the Shroud of Turin, leaving pollen grains and imprints of plants and flowers on the linen cloth. In addition to the image of a crucified man, the cloth also contains faint images of plants. Tentatively identifying the plant images through a method of image comparison known as Polarized Image Overlay Technique (PIOT), Alan and Mary Whanger have reported that the flowers were from the Near East region and that the Shroud originated in early centuries. Analysis of the floral images by Danin and an analysis of the pollen grains by Uri Baruch identify a combination of certain species that could be found only in the months of March and April in the region of Jerusalem during that time.

The analysis positively identifies a high density of pollen of the thistle Gundelia tournefortii which has bloomed in Israel between March and May for millennia. An image of the plant can be seen near the image of the man’s shoulder. It has been hypothesized by the Whangers, who have researched the Shroud for decades, that this is the plant used for the “crown of thorns” on Jesus’ head.

Two pollen grains of this species were also found on the Sudarium of Oviedo, widely accepted as the burial face cloth of Jesus. The location of the Sudarium has been documented from the 1st Century and it has resided in the Cathedral of Oviedo in Spain since the 8th Century. Both cloths also carry type AB blood stains, although some argue that ancient blood types are hard to interpret. What is clear is that the blood stains on both cloths are in a similar pattern.

“There is no way that similar patterns of blood stains, probably of the identical blood type, with the same type of pollen grains, could not be synchronic – covering the same body,” Danin stated. “The pollen association and the similarities in the blood stains in the two cloths provide clear evidence that the Shroud originated before the 8th Century.”

Danin stated that this botanical research disputes the validity of the claim that the Shroud was from Europe during the Middle Ages, as many researchers had concluded in 1988 based on carbon-14 dating tests. The authors do not question the accuracy of the carbon-14 dating test which was done on only a single sample taken from one highly contaminated corner of the shroud, he said. However, their research looked at pollen grains and images from the entire piece of fabric and compared them with a fabric that has a documented history.

Another plant seen in a clear image on the Shroud is of the Zygophyllum dumosum species, according to the paper. This is a native plant with an unusual leaf morphology, displaying paired leaflets on the ends of leaf petiole of the current year during the beginning of winter.

Gundelia tournefortii and Zygophyllum dumosum coexist in a limited area, according to Danin, a leading authority on plants of Israel. The area is bounded by lines linking Jerusalem and Hebron in Israel and Madaba and Karak in Jordan. The area is anchored toward the Jerusalem-Hebron zone with the addition of a third species, Cistus creticus, identified as being placed on the Shroud through an analysis of pollen and floral imaging.

“This combination of flowers can be found in only one region of the world,” Danin stated. “The evidence clearly points to a floral grouping from the area surrounding Jerusalem.”

Danin stated that the evidence revealing these species on the Shroud suggests that they were placed with the body prior to the process that caused the formation of images on the cloth. According to Danin, his findings corroborate the following sequence of events:

• Laying the body on the linen;
• Placing flowering plants and other objects along with the body;
• Folding the cloth over the body;
• Initiation of the process that caused the formation of the images.

Images of Capparis aegyptia flowers, which display a distinctive pattern during daylight hours, have also been seen on the Shroud. The process of buds opening ceases when the flowers are picked and no water is supplied. The images of these flowers on the Shroud suggest they were picked in the Judean Desert or the Dead Sea Valley between 3 and 4 p.m. on the day they were placed on the Shroud.

The images of the flowers on the Shroud are also depicted in art of the early centuries, according to the upcoming publication. Early icons on some 7th century coins portray a number of flower images that accurately match floral images seen on the Shroud today, according to PIOT analysis by the Whangers. The researchers suggest that the faint images on the Shroud were probably clearer in earlier centuries.⁸Botanical Evidence Indicates “Shroud Of Turin” Originated In Jerusalem Area Before 8th Century, Science Daily, August 3, 1999.

While the Shroud and the Sudarium are a mystery that will likely never be solved, it makes sense that the burial clothes of Jesus might have been kept by the saints and hidden away during the first century persecutions. From a theological standpoint, it is also fitting that the body of Christ was no longer receiving marks as a testimony but making them. Touching a leper made one unclean, but touching a leper and making him clean was a miracle. Likewise, the finger of God touching death itself from the inside and making it a “clean house” is a thrilling idea, and one that reveals our God to be the master of irony and subterfuge when it comes to His enemies.

The blood type is purported to be AB, that is, the universal recipient. Since God works in chiasms, it might be speculated that Adam’s blood type was O negative, the universal donor.

The existence and details of the Sudarium suggest that the face cloth was removed before burial but placed nearby, perhaps being the burial wrapping that John mentions as being placed separate from the other clothes (John 20:6-7).

One of the relics held by the cathedral in the town of Oviedo, in the north of Spain, is a piece of cloth measuring approximately 84 x 53 cm. There is no image on this cloth. Only stains are visible to the naked eye, although more is visible under the microscope. The remarkable thing about this cloth is that both tradition and scientific studies claim that the cloth was used to cover and clean the face of Jesus after the crucifixion.

The stains on the sudarium show that when the cloth was placed on the dead man’s face, it was folded over, although not in the middle. Counting both sides of the cloth, there is therefore a fourfold stain in a logical order of decreasing intensity.

From the composition of the main stains, it is evident that the man whose face the sudarium covered died in an upright position. The stains consist of one part blood and six parts fluid from a pleural oedema. This liquid collects in the lungs when a crucified person dies of asphyxiation, and if the body subsequently suffers jolting movements, can come out through the nostrils. These are in fact the main stains visible on the sudarium.

These stains in the nasal area are also superimposed on each other, with the different outlines clearly visible. This means that the first stain had already dried when the second stain was formed, and so on…

The cloth was not wrapped entirely round the head because the right cheek was almost touching the right shoulder. This suggests that the sudarium was put into place while the body was still on the cross. The second stain was made about an hour later, when the body was taken down. The third stain was made when the body was lifted from the ground about forty five minutes later. The body was lying at the foot of the cross for about forty-five minutes before being buried. The marks (not fingerprints) of the fingers that held the cloth to the nose are also visible…

The sudarium alone has revealed sufficient information to suggest that it was in contact with the face of Jesus after the crucifixion. However, the really fascinating evidence comes to light when this cloth is compared to the Shroud of Turin.

The first and most obvious coincidence is that the blood on both cloths belongs to the same group, namely AB.

The length of the nose through which the pleural oedema fluid came onto the sudarium has been calculated at eight centimetres, just over three inches. This is exactly the same length as the nose on the image of the Shroud.

If the face of the image on the Shroud is placed over the stains on the sudarium, perhaps the most obvious coincidence is the exact fit of the stains with the beard on the face. As the sudarium was used to clean the man’s face, it appears that it was simply placed on the face to absorb all the blood, but not used in any kind of wiping movement.

A small stain is also visible proceeding from the right hand side of the man’s mouth. This stain is hardly visible on the Shroud, but Dr. John Jackson, using the VP-8 and photo enhancements has confirmed its presence.

The thorn wounds on the nape of the neck also coincide perfectly with the bloodstains on the Shroud.

Dr. Alan Whanger applied the Polarized Image Overlay Technique to the sudarium, comparing it to the image and bloodstains on the Shroud. The frontal stains on the sudarium show seventy points of coincidence with the Shroud, and the rear side shows fifty. The only possible conclusion is that the Oviedo sudarium covered the same face as the Turin Shroud.

The sudarium has no image, and none of the facial stains of dried or drying blood visible on the Shroud, especially the stain on the forehead in the shape of an inverted three. The stains on the sudarium were made by a less viscous mixture.

This, together with the fact that the fingers which held the sudarium to Jesus’ nose have left their mark, point to a short temporal use of the cloth and eliminate the possibility of its contact with the body after burial.

Jewish tradition demands that if the face of a dead person was in any way disfigured, it should be covered with a cloth to avoid people seeing this unpleasant sight. This would certainly have been the case with Jesus, whose face was covered in blood from the injuries produced by the crown of thorns and swollen from falling and being struck.

It seems that the sudarium was first used before the dead body was taken down from the cross and discarded when it was buried.

This fits in with what we learn from John’s gospel, which tells us that the sudarium was rolled up in a place by itself.⁹Mark Guscin, B.A. M.Phil., The Sudarium of Oviedo: Its History and Relationship to the Shroud of Turin

This brings us back to the head-and-body process in the ways of God as an image of heaven and earth, also evident in the creation of the Man and the Woman. The Sudarium is related to the sufferings of Jesus on the cross but not His embalming and burial. It is related only to the head and bears no image of the fiat lux of the resurrection of the body. The Shroud, as the “second approach” on this Day of Coverings, pictures the return of the Bridegroom for the Bride “in like manner” in fragrant clouds of glory (Acts 1:11). The face speaks of the lifting up of the firstfruits, as pictured in the golden Table of Facebread, the referent of which was missing in heaven until John saw the standing Lamb.¹⁰For more discussion see The Missing Lamb and The Standing Dragon.

The final question that should be considered is why there is no mention in John 19 of the marks in Jesus feet from the nails that held Him to the cross. The answer might lie in the cruciform shape of the Tabernacle as an image of the heavens, the land, and the waters below the land (Exodus 20:4; Philippians 2:10). The waters image the nations of the World, so Jesus’ miraculous walking upon the sea was a sign of His coming dominion over the Gentiles. All things would be put in subjection under His feet, beginning at His ascension to heaven (Hebrews 2:5-10).

If you are new to this method of interpretation, please visit the Welcome page for some help to get you up to speed.